


Brother is the Only Word We Need

by DaggerFallen



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Kaiba Corp, fun fact i hate gozaburo, kaiba corperation, please just let them be brothers, seto doesnt accept noah at first, seto needs sleep, that sweet sweet found family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-06
Updated: 2020-04-06
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:33:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,692
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23516236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DaggerFallen/pseuds/DaggerFallen
Summary: Seto is still iffy about Noah after they helped him escape the datascape inside Gozaburo's computer, even if Mokuba seems to trust him already. What Seto doesnt know is that theres more that they have in common than he thinks.
Kudos: 27





	Brother is the Only Word We Need

Seto didn’t like this. Not in the slightest. As much as he had tried to push back the idea, here he was looking at a young boy with aquamarine hair, spinning in circles as he takes in the world around him. Mokuba had pestered him for months on end, claiming that the rat had changed. That this wasn’t the same kid that had almost killed them all, that it was only because of the harsh circumstances.

He didn’t buy it. And even if he did acknowledge that, he still wouldn’t ever find it in himself to forgive the rotten computer virus.

Noah had made himself at home in the Kaiba household almost as soon as he had been released from the horrible cyber prison that he had been trapped in for what seemed to him like forever. Fresh air was so different from the ones and zeros of the park breeze within the confines of the datacenter. He was enjoying himself, and Seto thought it was a bit too much.

“You should be grateful,” Seto said as he passed the boy in the halls of Kaiba Corp.

The boy had only been back for a day or two—it was hard to tell when Seto pulled all-nighters almost constantly—but he was already growing to regret letting Mokuba into the room in which they had kept Noah’s computer system. He had placed it in a special room to keep Noah from hacking into any of the Kaiba Corp. informational files. He didn’t trust a Noah made from flesh not to do that either. It was clear to see that although he was in the real world now, he was no less a troublemaker than he had previously been.

“I am grateful, big brother,” Noah hummed, and continued to spin without opening his eyes, which ran him smack into Seto’s leg as the taller man tried to get by.

Seto scowled and pushed Noah away with a grumble, “That is not a phrase that you’re permitted to use, I am _Seto_ , to you.” He then made his way to the conference room, not sparing a glance back as Noah stuck his tongue out in defiance.

It was safe to say that the two didn’t get along. At every turn Seto seemed to run into Noah, and he was beginning to think it was on purpose. Granted Seto had restricted him to only a few floors in the building, specifically ones that Seto could keep an eye on him in, but that was beside the point. It had been the most infuriating two to three days of his life.

Seto barely had time as it is, and as much as he would like to ask Mokuba to keep an eye on Noah, he knew that his younger brother would more than likely be dragged into the cerulean gremlin’s schemes. Instead he would task Isono with watching the boy. The fact that he knew Noah would not be happy with this decision almost made him feel a bit of satisfaction.

“I’m perfectly fine watching over myself, _Seto_ ,” Noah followed him down the hall, keeping pace with him despite his shorter legs, “I’m older than you, remember? I don’t need a babysitter.”

As he spoke Isono kept pace as well with the both of them like Seto had asked, he would be sure to pay the man a large bonus for the job well done later.

“No, Noah, you were trapped at ten which means that you’re still ten, and until eight more years pass for you out here, you wont be an adult,” Seto made sure he knew where he stood in the decision. He glanced back to see Noah’s pale skin turn a deep and frustrated red as he continued to stomp behind him. He still acted ten too, there was no proof at all that the boy had aged any in the years that he was inside the computer.

“Now when you’re done with your tantrum could you go get Mokuba and send him to my office?” he directed this statement to both Noah and Isono just in case the first failed to follow through.

Seto continued to his office and set several documents from Industrial Illusions to the side to deal with later. If anything after all that had gone down Pegasus was more lenient and easier to deal with than almost all other company CEOs that Seto found himself working with nowadays. He still had a deadline of course, but Pegasus didn’t bother him until then.

Almost as soon as he sat down in his chair his office door swung open once more. Mokuba came in, followed by Noah and Isono as well.

“This will just be between me and Mokuba,” Seto nodded to Isono who led a grumbling Noah out of the room. By the look on Mokuba’s face he was a bit upset by that.

“Noah isn’t that bad, brother…” he said with a sigh.

“That’s not what I called you in here for, I wanted your opinion on a 3D model for one of Industrial Illusions newer fusion cards. I expect it to be one of the more popular cards, and a lot of students at Duel Academia, once it opens, might find themselves using it. I’d like input from someone younger than myself on how the model works,” Seto said as he brought up the image on the screen to show Mokuba.

Mokuba pouted, “You’re avoiding the question, Duel Academia isn’t even gonna open for several more years,” he said, which caught Seto off guard.

“Once Noah proves to me that I can trust him, then I’ll consider showing him respect when he’s earned it,” he said in the authoritative tone he used on employtees, which just seemed to make Mokuba angrier.

“He was hurt by Gozaburo just like us,” Mokuba sighed, giving the model an approval before leaving.

Once left alone in his office, Seto let out a sigh of his own, running a hand through his hair. He decided that perhaps tonight he should get some sleep rather than continuing to stay up. The coffee wasn’t cutting it anymore.

Around what Seto felt like was a reasonable time, despite it being almost two in the morning, he began making his way to his room. Though before he could get there a hand landed on his shoulders, stopping him in his tracks. He turned to find that it was Isono that had stopped him.

“What is it?” Seto fixed his suit and turned to the guard.

“I fear there is a problem with Noah,” he started, which irritated Seto to no end.

“Then why are you here instead of dealing with it? I’m retiring to my room, please have it dealt with by the time I wake up,” he turned to begin walking again only to be stopped a second time.

“Sir-“

“Did you not hear what I said? Get it done,” he snapped and pulled away with a harsh look to Isono who just stood there and took the ill mannered gaze towards himself.

“Rest well, sir,” he said, leaving Seto alone in the hallway.

The air hung heavy around him. Isono was one of his better employees, almost family at this point, which made him feel almost a spike of regret at how he had acted. He immediately pushed that down. He was Isono’s boss, so the man had better damn well listen when he was told to do something. He didn’t pay him to complain.

With that Seto found his way to his room at last and slept a few cozy hours until the morning light came through his window. Needless to say, he scorned the light of the sun for a few moments before pulling himself out from beneath the covers. Today would be a relatively slow-paced day, which Seto didn’t mind in the least. It gave him time to go over his deck and set up plans for future events as well as some of the curriculum he wanted taught at Duel Academia.

Just some paperwork, which although admittedly easier than going out and meeting different company heads, it was a lot more dull and lifeless. As such he had previous recordings playing while he took care of said paperwork, and after a while Mokuba had joined him as well. Currently Yugi’s battle city match was playing, and Seto gave the occasional glance up to assess the moves being played.

Noah stepped in at some point, though Seto hadn’t noticed him immediately, so when the boy’s voice spoke up over the video he had almost jumped. Almost.

“I only got to assess the limited amount of data I had on Yugi while in the datascape. This is like nothing I’ve seen from him before, but I’m not surprised,” he said with a smile, and it angered Seto to no end.

“For Yugi to be able to beat me he must be leagues ahead, think about that next time you state the obvious,” Seto clicked a button on the remote to advance the video to the next duel in irritation, instead showcasing one with Jonouchi.

He was about to settle back into his chair to continue paperwork when he heard Mokuba stand from the couch in the room. Without a word the youngest brother took Noah by the arm and left. Seto watched the door swing closed with a shocked gaze. He sent a looked to Isono and cleared his throat. The man left to keep an eye on the two younger siblings.

For some odd reason though, Seto couldn’t find it in himself to focus on the paperwork or the duel on screen anymore. It just didn’t quite sit right.

He stood and left the paperwork for now and went to roam the halls, perhaps to find out where Mokuba had gone and why he had seemed so upset. Seto rarely fought with Mokuba, so this retort came as quite the shock. It was when he could hear surprised kitchen staff that Seto knew where at least one of them was.

With a stride in his step the oldest brother threw open the doors to the dining hall, his eyes scanning for the source of the problem before eventually narrowing in on a certain teal haired boy.

“What have you gotten into this time?” he said in an irrationally angry tone of voice, so irrational in fact that he was surprised by the tone in which those words had left him. Not enough for him to take them back of course. Once Seto Kaiba said something there was no going back, that’s just how it was.

Noah turned to look at Seto, and Seto suddenly registered the confusion on everyone’s face.

“O-oh dear, its not the boy’s fault we permitted him to use the kitchen supplies. We’re very sorry, Mr. Kaiba,” one of the kitchen staff said quickly, and Seto glanced to him with an inkling to fire someone on the spot, but he refrained and took a deep breath.

He could now see that Noah was cooking with the staff members and judging by their reactions, he was surprisingly good at it, no doubt from lengthy research into a lot of random subjects in his free time.

“Is something wrong?” Noah had the audacity to say, but with another deep breath Seto just turned and left. Even if he couldn’t focus on his paperwork, clearly he needed time in his office to himself to calm down.

Isono stepped in later, giving Seto a moment to process his presence before he spoke.

“I think you are in need of a bit of vacation time, sir,” he suggested, “This stress seems to be getting to you.”

Seto of course went to retort to the statement before he was cut off once again by Isono:

“You don’t want to stray down the same path that your late father did, do you?”

That struck hard. Much harder than he ever wanted to admit that it had. He could tell by his reflection in the monitor though that his face conveyed just how much that had actually hurt. He grit his teeth and stood, making for the door.

Before he exited, he gave Isono instructions, “clear my schedule for the week, push it all back.” Isono was happy to do so.

Seto walked down the hall with no particular direction in mind. His thoughts wandered all over the place, but always settled in on one disturbing image. It shocked him to say the least when he looked up and that image was staring back at him.

He had found himself in one of the older rooms in the corporate building. Seto had left it there as a testament to what he had achieved so far on his own as the company head. Though he never expected to actually set foot back in here, sometimes he would just glance at the doors as a silent acknowledgement, but he never actually went in. Which meant that in his wandering, the door must’ve been left open.

He stared eye to eye with a large portrait of Gozaburo Kaiba, the man whom he had taken the company from. He found himself glaring at the man, there were never any fond feelings that came with remembering his face, and often he just became infuriated in doing so.

It was only when he heard something shift in the room that he noticed that someone was actually in here with him. The room was dim, but there was figure ahead of him. Lo and behold right in front of said portrait on his knees was none other than the bratty computer virus himself.

Noah’s head turned to Seto, and from the light that the doorway let in he could see a look of rage about him, and now he understood why the boy unsettled him so much. Whenever he looked at Noah, he remembered Gozaburo, and all the irrational hatred in him seemed to become rational all at once. Though there was something off.

The rage in Noah’s eyes wasn’t directed at Seto, but instead at the portrait that sat in front of the two siblings. It finally started to click into place, what Mokuba had said the other day, though Seto would wait to hear it in Noah’s own words.

“I finally understand Seto,” he started, his voice clearly being distorted by the swath of emotions that the poor boy seemed to be almost drowning in, “I see why you did what you did to him. I see why he deserved every ounce of hatred you and Mokuba feel towards him. He’s a rotten, disgusting man. I hate the bane upon me that forces me to call him father.”

There was no doubt in Seto’s mind that all of that had been genuine. No magic or mockery was being pulled here, just raw emotion. And Seto could tell because with every word that left Noah’s mouth, he felt it mirror itself within him.

Seto took a few steps forward, and the clack of his heels on the cold tile seemed to echo painfully loud throughout the room.

He put a hand on Noah’s head, as he did for Mokuba. Then took a deep breath and exhaled, which Noah then mirrored, visibly calming down after he had.

“We all share the burden of calling that man out father. Father has become a scornful word to the Kaiba household, but that’s why we have a better word,” he started, not knowing that Mokuba was outside the door in tears as well at the memory of the man who they had once called a dad, “We have brother, which means much more Noah. Because Kaiba brothers rise above those who hold them down. As you will too, brother.”

Noah turned and gripped onto the white coat that Kaiba wore, instead crying into that. Seto could now see that Gozaburo didn’t live on in Noah, but a hatred for him and what he stood for still burned brightly in the three brothers that would live to carry his name. Because now, brothers indeed they were.


End file.
